IT’S always rather exciting for car geeks like me to experience a brand-new manufacturer and get behind the wheel of a car from a brand I almost know nothing about.
So, I was intrigued when I received an invite to Scotland to discover an all-electric vehicle from a manufacturer that only had a handful of vehicles in the UK, but has huge plans to take the EV market by storm.
Not being able to get to the Scotland launch, I arrived at a regional event at a plush Windsor mansion hotel where I first set my eyes on one of three EVs on offer from BYD – otherwise known as Build Your Dream.
You’d be forgiven for not knowing anything about BYD – you may think it’s a company that’s suddenly come out of the woodwork to cash in on the EV market, but think again.
Originating in China, the company has more than 600,000 employees globally and has been producing battery technology since the 1980s.
The company has 90,000 engineers and 1 in 5 mobile phones in the world today contain BYD products.
Remember the class original Nokia 3210 mobile phone with a battery that lasted for weeks? Well, that could be an indication of how good the BYD cars could be as the company produced that very mobile phone battery which properly stood the test of time.
BYD has launched a total of three models already this year – the Dolphin, Atto 3 and the Seal, which is the vehicle we managed to get our hands on and has only been in the UK a matter of weeks.
It produced its first vehicles in Asia in 2008, building a total of six million EVs and selling 1.86 million in 2022, with a turnover of £56 billion in the first quarter of 2023 – it doesn’t sound much like a newcomer now, right?
When seeing the Seal for the first time, you cannot help yourself comparing it to models from Tesla – however, it soon becomes obvious the BYD is a far superior-looking car compared to any of the Tesla cars.
Inside, it’s the same story. You’re faced with an extremely high-end quality interior, with soft stitched leather seats and a rotatable 15-inch centre screen. Everything on the BYD range of cars is made by them – nothing is borrowed or regurgitated from any other manufacturer like you get in other cars.
In this review, I’m not going to write a full in-depth review on how the Seal drives and its suitability for the chauffeur market. In simple, maybe somewhat brutal terms, it isn’t suited at all. It goes head-to-head with the Tesla Model 3, Polestar 2 and Ford Mustang Mach-e and Volkwagen ID.4, so it’s not a car you’ll see clients in the back of anytime soon.
However, I’m going to concentrate on what the future could hold for BYD within the chauffeur sector. The race is well and truly on to find a luxury electric vehicle which is both affordable and has the right range for the chauffeur sector in the real world.
Obviously, we have the high-end BMW i7’s, Mercedes EQS and even very attractive offerings from companies like Genesis and even the Kia EV9! But, all of these are huge money, they have their place for luxury chauffeur cars, but at some point in the near future, we’ll be looking for slightly cheaper all-electric alternatives for airport runs and corporate work.
The great thing about ‘new’ car offerings from the likes of BYD is that there’s fresh thinking and new ideas. Cars are made from the outset with electrification in mind, rather than adapting current models to fit new drivetrains.
BYD is proud to say its cars are not designed and built around the battery packs – almost a metal shell, protecting the vulnerable cells. In fact, we were shown a video of one of the BYD Seals being crash tested twice, then the battery pack removed, put into a new vehicle and driven off showing the sheer strength of the battery pack which is simply removable in one piece. See it here.
This shows the huge development of electric vehicles in such a short amount of time, and with the excellent quality and driving qualities I experienced in the BYD Seal in just one day, it makes me feel it could have a strong future in producing more luxury and client-worthy vehicles.
As a company, it’s certainly making itself known here in the UK with now 13 dealerships, with plans to double that each year, and all vehicles getting a 6-year warranty with an 8-year warranty on the battery pack.
Stand aside Tesla – BYD is coming through! What this space.
Report and photos: Paul Gibson
